29 October 2024

South east London faces significant population health challenges, some of which are common to urban locations and some of which are unique to our area.

King’s Health Partners (KHP) clinical academics, including Prof John Moxham, developed a system-wide approach known as the Vital 5. This focuses on five risk factors - blood pressure, mental health, obesity, smoking, and alcohol intake - which if identified and managed will make a big difference to our population’s health and help to reduce inequalities by preventing the onset of ill-health.

Taking up the mantle of this work - The Vital 5 Check is a new, standardised prevention health and wellbeing check. It has been designed to address critical drivers to health inequalities and targeted to communities living with deprivation, for example those in the south east London's Core20Plus5 populations. 

To tailor the intervention to communities who need it most - the Vital 5 Check has been developed with people from within them. These communities typically have low trust in and access of health and care services. The Vital 5 Check intervention aims to increase people’s trust through how the conversations take place. Colleagues who offer the intervention are supported with prompts and cues to mention topics that residents have said are important to them. 

Recently, KHP has continued supporting partners to deliver Vital 5 Checks, and refreshed the resource package for practitioners and residents:

  • Since the pilot started, more than 45,000 Vital 5 Checks have been delivered across south east London including in community pharmacies, at the One Bromley health hub in the Glades, and by Partnership Southwark at events.
  • There is a new resident-facing webpage containing an overview of the Vital 5, why they’re important, and tips and support for residents to improve their Vital 5. The site also contains a map of local care pathways set out in a resident-friendly format. 
  • We’re also putting the finishing touches on other resources including a training package that will be tailorable for any practitioner working on any Vital 5 area, a leaflet for residents to take away a record of their Vital 5 numbers, and new posters and flyers to help ensure residents know what the Vital 5 are and where they can find out their Vital 5 numbers.

In addition, we have partnered with Clinical Effectiveness South East London (CESEL) to produce a Vital 5 Guide for general practice.  

To mark the launch of this new Guide, CESEL will be delivering a webinar at lunchtime on Thursday 14 November (1 – 2pm). All staff across primary care who interact with patients (clinical and non-clinical) are invited to attend, as the Vital 5 initiative is relevant to your work. This includes Receptionists, Care Coordinators, HCAs, Physician Associates, Nurses, GPs . The guide is likely to be especially useful for health care assistants. Please register to attend the event.

Find out more about our work in population health.